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Edinburgh Reporter

Fringe 2025 – Ahir Shah: Work in Progress ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ahir Shah has become an established Fringe performer. After a series of nominations, he finally won the main Comedy Award in 2023. On the back of his Fringe successes, he's become a regular media figure, featuring on BBC Radio 4 (Ahir Shah's 7 Blunders of the World) and also has had HBO and Netflix specials. This year Shah is performing a limited series of shows (14 -24), advertised as a work in progress but very much on course to becoming a fully realized show. A change of tone I've been lucky enough to catch Shah on at least 4 occasions. I particularly recall a brilliantly delivered and powerful performance of his 2017 show Control, which illustrated a more lyrical aspect to his polemical material. I was surprised that he only received a nomination for the comedy award that year (especially having also seen one of the award winning shows that year). This year's show had a different tone to the shows I've seen before, with the political aspect far less prominent. He even felt that his politics had been mischaracterized by many; that he was merely a liberal and not a radical left winger. Certainly there was less of a polemical aspect to this show. Mechanistic routines He shows have always had a personal aspect, particularly drawing on his Indian heritage, but this was stronger this time. In particular the focus was on his happy embrace of full adulthood (he is now 34), settling down (getting married and thinking of starting a family (' I'm the broodiest man in Britain'). But alongside this was a desire to avoid being dominated by the 'mechanistic routines' of adult life, and maintain space for more meaningful activities. He drew on the examples of some of his older family members to illustrate the potential richness of life, as well as pay tribute to the sacrifices their generations made. There were several touching moments regarding his grandmother's life. In debt One strong theme that ran through the show was the devastating impact of financial worries and how debt can become all encompassing, and often leading to psychological and indeed physical health problems. Shah as long suffered with bouts of depression, with some of the deep money worries coloured his early years contributing to this. The image of his burnt family home, with the ground floor intact by the upper floor gutted, as a depiction of his own mental state was a powerful one. At several points in the show, the audience felt a little bit uncomfortable laughing given the clear anguish that some of the Themes dredged up in Shah. For long portions of the show, he clung to the back wall, sometimes feeling the rough sandstone with his fingers. He felt like a way of keeping his emotions somehow in check. The emotional content transmitted itself to the audience. Fragility I'm sure I was not alone in finding many parts of the performance moving. There was a definite fragility to the performance, though it was generally performed with Shah's customary articulacy. Shah's ability to build to and deliver a punchline was consistently illustrated in the show. Some of these cut against the seriousness of the theme, giving the performance and nice balance of light and shade. Before the show, Shah handed out bananas to those queuing up to see him (several queued for an hour to get some of the limited pay what you can spots). A nice gesture. More broadly, Shah's emotional candour made a deep connection with the audience. The lengthy and loud applause at the end was well deserved but it was also evident from their response that the audience had been on something of an emotional journey. No doubt they were some sections which Shah will need to work on and some of the transitions between sections were not as smooth as they will surely become. We were treated to a handful of his signature long, highly articulate broadsides but not as many as in his more fully formed shows. Shah promised, at the end, that 'it'll be something at some point – come back next year !'. I'm sure most in the audience would be only to happy to return and hear the fully fledged version. Ahir Shah plays at Monkey Barrel 3 at Monkey Barrel Comedy, at 12.00 – until August 24th. Tickets here Like this: Like Related